What is Digg?39 Comments
- ThinkBox, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9Great, so now i have to shovel coal into my computer?
- chris9902, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6please, tell me more.
- logicon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5What on Earth are you babbling about and what does this have to do with the article?
To answer your question, I ask you a question: do you consider an ant "intelligent"? Surely you must because at a basic level an ant's brain is no different than our own, just much smaller. If you don't accept that (and you shouldn't), then what conclusion are you forced to come to? The conclusion is that as things scale up emergent properties form such as consciousness. If an ant brain can be scaled up to form these properties that define intelligence, why can't a computer? It's only a matter of time before we have machines as intelligent, and even more intelligent than ourselves. - simpleid, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I've come up with some really silly conceptual work which had me heading to a lot of really amazing solutions to simplify complexity in other projects. even if i thought it could have no use.
plus, your knowledge of everything is limited to what you know now, so if you can't think of a use for something it doesn't mean no one else can.
shut it you *****.
maybe you can't get past the obvious and imagine obscure solutions to things you are unaware of. - Denithor, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6The ultimate chip for a Steampunk machine. ;-p
- jtinz, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4So a computer is made of dumb material and a brain is made of intelligent material?
I guess that explains the problems in artificial intelligence then. - lordmetroid, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3The article speaks for itself...
Why did you ruin the digg page with a comment. Now see what you have done! - Ramble, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4They're not competing with silicon chips for speed.
The mechanical idea is all about cheapness and reliability. - bigteebo, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4EMP proof computers, anyone?
- Protean1, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4...somewhere out there, John Percival Hackworth is getting a gem of an idea.
- RealmDown, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4
Cattle mutilations are up this year too. - JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Yes. The differences should be "intuitively obvious". Maybe from a certain perspective, ants and people are just carbon based machines. Maybe one day we will be able to build comparable machines that can reproduce and repair themselves. But for right now, we don't have a clue how to achieve it. We can't even make a self replicating amoeba.
- MasterGrief, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Yes, thank you! Someone who even knows what steampunk is!
I'm about halfway through The Difference Engine right now, actually. Gotta love speculative fiction. - aikimann, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Please read the article before commenting.
- kronix, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I don't know if anyone realizes how big of an issue this really is. Right now processors have a very hard time working in high radiation areas AKA space. It is common for the electronics systems in satellites to get fried during solar flares. Mechanical computers have never been practical because the parts have been so large. If I have to move 16 tons of gears and actuators and whatnot to add 2 numbers that's not practical. Computers that don't rely on electrons flowing through them would be a huge advance for humanity.
- tizz66, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2I was at the Science Museum last week and saw the machine in the photo. They're also building another one that I guess will actually be used. It's enormous but just amazing in terms of engineering. They're building it in situ, so although it isn't finished or working yet, you can see them putting it together slowly.
- JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"... having machines that reproduce or repair themselves isn't the goal ... building computers/machines that can think, interact, and learn is."
Without the ability to self reproduce, repair or somehow "grow", there can be no real learning. All you will have is an inert machine blindly executing a sequence of binary logic instructions developed by people. Regardless of how big or how fast it is, it can never be any more "self-aware" than the dumb boxes that we have already have. - JasonPrini, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3Current transistors aren't nano structures at 45nm???
This is just buzword PR. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1My hopes and dreams are built with gold and silicon.
- lordmetroid, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Is there any different between your carbon based machinery that you are built upon and this silicon based machinery?
- origosis, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0YT would be proud (Yeah i know different book, same world.)
- snakeman01, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0yes, I read about this at http://www.antiquesbuyersguide.com. Certainly very interesting.
- origosis, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2Yes but Nano technology is believed to be so fast that even an inefficient design like a mechanical one would still be faster then todays computers. besides it's a new tech. It makes sense to have to work from the ground up can't just go making a 50billion transistor nano processor with a theoretical.
- marcene, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2Interesting due to the integration of disciplines: nanotechnology, engineering, IT, historical scientific components and systems, etc. Even if it may not be possible to accomplish this, the creativity of the human mind, and multiple minds working together will take us somewhere we have not been before to solve new problems of which we have not been aware before, or are soon to learn about given the pace of technology.
- JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2According to the Bible, the first man was made from clay. If you believe a man can be made from clay, I suppose it's only a small jump to making a brain from sand (silicon)? I guess that explains this "faith" in artificial intelligence.
- jtinz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Isn't YT Miss Mathewson?
- moraviapils, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0So what if it can reproduce and multiply? That has nothing to do with the notion of intelligence- plenty of single celled organisms can reproduce, but you wouldn't call them intelligent. I think at this point, that having machines that reproduce or repair themselves isn't the goal of those working on artificial intelligence, but building computers/machines that can think, interact, and learn is.
- JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1"If an ant brain can be scaled up to form these properties that define intelligence, why can't a computer?" Why? Because even an ant and it's brain have significant properties that computers lack. For example, it's "alive", it can reproduce and multiply. And we don't have a clue about how to make something with these properties.
- theeeric, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Protean1 had it right. This kind of thing was detailed in Drexler's Nanosystems in 1992.
- bronkenwrists, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0I don't care how, just MAKE MY P3 1.7 ghz faster, god damn it!
- JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -5/+3A mechanical computer? Can it be programmed with "artificial intelligence"? Whether mechanical or electronic, a computer is a logic machine that consists of lots and lots of tiny switches. Add more switches, make it run faster, add more complex programming and still ... it's just a box full of inert material that is as dumb as a hammer. So why do so many people "believe" that one day these boxes of inert material will somehow become intelligent? This "belief" in artificial intelligence is like a geek religion or something.
- 1iProd, on 10/10/2007, -4/+2With that, my Killer-NIC network card, PhsX card, and SLI'd 8800 Ultras, I'll be the best gamer EVER
- Abomonog, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0I did, It still won't work. Mechanical computers have one practical use. That is calculating mortar trajectories. That is the ONLY use that mechanical computers have ever been employed for in modern times. So unless you have some need for firing mortars and your pocket calculators not working, I guess a nano mechanical computer will do the job, if you have a microscope to read the dials.
We have cheapness and reliability. There are more transistors than you average first generation electronic calculator on a pinpoint sized spot on your CPU. How about we try taking those old solid state designs and shrinking them? They were already reliable enough to send people to the moon (and 2 probes to the mars surface, namely Viking 1 and 2).
This design won't even compete with the Univac in speed, meaning it will have all the computational power of an AM radio (meaning Zero or a value thats next to zero). We already have BIO-CPU's that are just as small, just as reliable, and nearly as fast as the silicone jobs at smaller sizes and voltages. It's not going to work. Just like the Spruce Goose before it technology is going to make it obsolete before it goes to market. It may compute (the Spruce Goose did fly) but it can't possibly work on a practical basis. Now if they had started working on this idea 30 years ago it may have had a chance.
Today we will never see it outside a missile, IF the military adopts it even. - piakiev, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0D@#m wrong post
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1That last pic reminds me of sperm entering an egg. "The first prototype parts are being built of gold and silicon." BOW CHIKA BOW WOW
- Abomonog, on 10/10/2007, -6/+3Here's one. It will fail because mechanical computers are slow as hell.
There it is. It got a comment but also a bury for being dream technology that will never work on a practical basis - piakiev, on 10/10/2007, -6/+0Ohhhhh, it wouldn't be sof funny if it weren't so true.
- mannaran, on 10/10/2007, -9/+153 Diggs but no comments? And the story is in front page
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